Step 1: Assess helps companies identify and evaluate their impacts on nature across their value chains. Step 2: Prioritize helps companies determine where target-setting and action are likely to deliver the greatest benefit for nature and their business. Together, these steps help companies make informed decisions about where to act, focus resources where they matter most, and build a credible foundation for setting science-based targets for nature.

Proposed updates include:

• Better ways to assess – by improving the practicality and interoperability of materiality assessment and enabling companies to build on existing assessments and disclosures
• Easier ways to progress – by streamlining requirements so data is decision-useful and companies can move forward with clearer traceability classifications, enhanced disclosures, and improved prioritization
• New ways to act – by creating clearer pathways for upstream target-setting and action across the value chain, including Supplier Engagement and Traceability Improvement targets where near-term traceability remains difficult.

SBTN held a public consultation between March 24 and April 17, 2026, to request feedback on proposed changes that build on real-world corporate implementation experience and reflect input from the SBTN technical community. Learn more about the proposed changes by reviewing the public consultation materials here. 

Freshwater science-based targets help companies take measurable, time-bound action that supports positive outcomes for ecosystems, communities, and other local water users.

The updated methods will enable companies to address a broader range of freshwater pressures, apply the guidance across more contexts, and move from assessment to credible action through clearer and more practical target-setting pathways.

Building on the existing methods for surface water use and nutrient pollution, Version 2 expands freshwater target-setting to include groundwater and pesticide-related impacts. These updates will be particularly relevant for sectors with significant freshwater impacts across their operations and value chains, including food and agriculture, beverages, fashion and textiles, and chemicals.

Following last year’s public consultation, selected companies—including Adidas AG, Arla Foods, Danone, Decathlon, General Mills Inc., H&M Group, Metso Oyj, Talawakelle Tea Estates PLC—are now piloting the Version 2 guidance to set expanded freshwater targets. Their experience will help further refine the methods and validation process, ensuring the targets are credible, practical, and ready to scale.

Learn more about the Version 2 updates in the public consultation materials.

SBTN’s land targets help companies address major drivers of land degradation – such as habitat conversion and land use change – and promote positive outcomes by encouraging landscape-level restoration, pollution reduction, and collaborative action through stakeholder engagement.

The updated methods are designed to make science-based targets for land more practical to set and apply by giving companies clearer requirements, more flexible pathways, stronger accounting guidance, and expanded options for addressing working lands — while maintaining the rigorous, place-based approach needed to align action with ecological limits.

The most substantial updates apply to the Land Footprint Reduction target, which will become the broader Working Land Regeneration and Restoration Target. This target now includes both Land Area and Land Quality components, giving companies more ways to reduce land demand, integrate nature into working lands, and improve land management practices linked to ecosystem health. The No Conversion of Natural Ecosystems target introduces a dedicated pathway for mining, infrastructure, construction, and extractive sectors, recognizing sector-specific operating realities, while the Landscape Engagement target has more limited updates. 

Companies will also have clearer guidance to quantify land-related impacts through new guidance (AGILE) for measuring and accounting for land-related impacts across direct operations and value chains. AGILE helps companies calculate baselines and footprints, and prepare target submissions for validation. 

SBTN held a public consultation on Version 2 updates from April to May 2025, and, building on input from the consultation, 3 companies began piloting the Version 2 guidance in Fall 2025, with 17 other companies engaging with the process as observers to gain critical insights and prepare for their own target-setting in the future. Learn more about the Version 2 changes by reviewing the public consultation materials. 

Following the publication of SBTN’s first seafood targets for ocean in 2025, six first-mover companies — including Danish Pelagic Producers Organization, Musholm, Orkla Foods Sweden, Seatopia, and Waitrose — are piloting the guidance to set and validate targets for wild capture fisheries and aquaculture. SBTN is now focused on completing the pilot and preparing validation services so additional companies can begin progressing.

SBTN expects to develop a future Version 2 release for ocean targets, with timing dependent on funding and resourcing. While the scope is not yet confirmed, SBTN is exploring potential expansion to other key blue economy sectors, including shipping, marine renewables, coastal development, and tourism.

SBTN’s Step 4: Act helps companies implement their science-based targets for nature.

Initial resources for Step 4: Act are available now, including initial response options across the SBTN Action Framework – from avoidance and reduction to regeneration and restoration.  

Forthcoming guidance and tools in 2026 will help companies move from target-setting to action planning by identifying relevant response options, assessing feasibility, and connecting science-based targets with broader nature and climate transition planning.

Resources will include enhanced Step 4 guidance, an expanded response options database, and a corporate action plan template — helping companies identify actions with benefits across multiple targets, structure robust action plans, and apply safeguards for nature and people.

Because implementation varies by company context, Step 4 provides flexible guidance and practical tools to support credible action planning, rather than a single prescribed approach for validation.

Learn more about the forthcoming resources by exploring the Frequently Asked Questions about Step 4: Act here.